The Problem with Bulldozer Justice in India | a2zorbit


 "Hello, friends!"  "Nowadays, politics in the form of Bulldozers is being used all across the country."  It started in the UP elections.  With the slogans for Bulldozer Baba.  There was a song on it too.  """Long live Bulldozer Baba."""  "Next, in Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan's government"  put up hoardings on the road promoting Bulldozer Mama.  "And with time, after Bulldozer Baba and Bulldozer Mama,"  we witnessed Bulldozer Justice.  "While being interviewed by Barkha Dutt,"  "Madhya Pradesh's Home Minister Narottam Mishra said,"  """When dealing with hooligans, I believe,"  they should get what they deserve.  These people are harming society.  They make the lives of good people difficult.   "And we should be seen taking immediate action against the rioters."""  "After Madhya Pradesh's Bulldozer Justice,"  the Bulldozers reached Delhi's Jahangirpuri.  The timing was suspiciously the same.  These bulldozers reached the place soon after a communal riot.  They demolish the homes and shops of some people.  Our story doesn't end here.  "After this, the bulldozers are seen in Rajasthan's Alwar."  "There, they demolish a temple."  "Before this, a journalist named Aman,"  had started chipping away at the peace. 

He went on the TV to claim  that Alwar demolition was a retaliation against the Jahangirpuri incident.  """Jahangirpuri's revenge."  Attacking Mahadev.  Is it a mere coincidence   "that 2 days ago, in Delhi's Jahangirpuri,"  "a mosque's gate was demolished by a bulldozer,"  "and today, in Alwar, Rajasthan,"  "3 temples were demolished."""  "Later we found out that,"  "the place that was bulldozed in Rajasthan,"  had been bulldozed before the Jahangirpuri incident.  It happened around April 17th or 18th.  The second thing we found out was  "while Congress is the incumbent government in Rajasthan,"  "but in this area of Rajgad, the municipal department is under BJP's control."  In the same way how Delhi is governed by the AAP   but Delhi's MCD is under BJP's control.  "According to Dainik Bhaskar's report,"  "the demolition of the temple,"  "was actually being planned for the last 7 months,"  by the Municipality Board.  "Well, let's not get into individual incidents,"  "come, let's understand the meaning of this Bulldozer Politics."  What are the consequences?  How does it affect the law and order in the country?  And how does it affect the lives of common people?  And why do some people love bulldozer politics?  """We have the reasons and the orders."""  """We weren't given any information or notices or anything.

They aren't listening to anyone."  Wherever they want they bring out Baba's and Mama's bulldozers.  Is Jahangirpuri the only illegally settled place in the entire Delhi?  Only these 300 homes were illegal?  "Why aren't you investigating Delhi as a whole?"""  "Taking it at the face value,"  "people who are rioting and pelting stones,"  "the government identifies them,"  and instantly sends bulldozer to their homes  to demolish their homes and shops.  "Broadly speaking, this is what most people think Bulldozer Politics is."  Some people claim that there's one other thing that the government looks for.  The government checks whether the houses are built illegally.  Whether there's any illegal encroachment.  "If there is, that makes it 2 conditions."  One: being a stone pelter.  Second: illegal encroachment.  Only then will bulldozers be sent to your house.  That's the Bulldozer Justice.  "Irrespective of what the reasons are,"  it basically means that  "neither will there be any action by the police,"  nor by the courts.  The government will decide of its own volition.  To bulldoze houses.  This is the Bulldozer Justice.  But is it truly justice?  "In my opinion, this can't be called justice."  It's called revenge.  These are widely different words.  Justice.  And Revenge.  It may seem that the two mean the same thing.  "But the more you think about these two words,"  the more will you understand that actually  they are vastly different.  "With different meanings,"  "and often, they contradict each other."  Revenge is an emotional response.  The one trying to take revenge aims at  taking revenge as soon as possible.  "On the other hand, Justice is a rational response."  A logical decision after much deliberations.   "Often, it takes a significant amount of time." 

Revenge brings the victim and perpetrator on the same level.  "The one in the wrong and the one wronged,"  after the revenge both end up feeling the same way.  Think about it.  "If a family member gets murdered,"  "and you go out to look for the murderer,"  "and kill the murderer,"  the number of murderers in society doesn't change.  There's a famous Batman dialogue regarding this.      "In the latest Batman film,"  "it was in the cinemas a few weeks ago,"  I would recommend that you watch it.  Because it looks into this issue extensively.   Revenge is an endless cycle.  It has no end. 

"On the other hand, justice provides closure."  It brings about peace in society.  "This is the reason why Mahatma Gandhi had said,"  The need for revenge will leave the whole world blind.  This isn't how the justice system works.  "It doesn't run on ""An eye for an eye."""  "Had the country's justice system run on revenge,"  "then for every murder in the country,"  the murderer should have been hanged to death.  But that's not how it works.  "Because in all the Constitutions written in the world, "  the authors of the Constitution knew about this.  Revenge can't bring long-lasting peace to society.  "For every crime in the country,"  "we need to understand the motives, reasons, and consequences."  If we truly wish to bring peace to the country.  You'll remember the horrifying 26/11 attacks on Mumbai.  "Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan,"  was a brave NSG Commander  who was martyred in action during these attacks.  Terrorist Ajmal Kasab was placed on trial.  "And finally, in November 2012,"  he was hanged to death.  "When this happened, some people celebrated."  They celebrated his death.  But do you know what was Sandeep Unnikrishnan's father's reaction?  "He said that it was foolishness,"  hanging Kasab was not a cause for celebration.  There's nothing to be happy about.  Hanging Kasab was a legal necessity.  "The judiciary decided to do this,"  so that there could be peace in society.  "That's why he asked everyone to show restraint,"  rather than celebrating.  "Can you imagine a person who lost his young son in a terrorist attack,"  knowing and telling people that the terrorist being hanged to death  isn't a cause for celebration.   "If we fast forward to 10 years later,"  "today, in 2022,"  "when people's houses were bulldozed in Jahangirpuri," 

"when shops were demolished,"  "and we saw this  Blog of this young child,"  collecting coins from the debris of his demolished shop.  """Why are you collecting these?"""  """Because our business and our household runs with this."""  Was this shop legal or illegal?  Was the Constitution followed while bulldozing it?  Was the proper system followed or not?  Why had the Supreme Court ordered this bulldozer to stop?  These questions will be analysed later.  "Before that, look at this young child."  Suppose this shop was illegal.  Suppose that this child's father had pelted stones.  Suppose the Supreme Court hadn't ordered it to stop.  And suppose that the bulldozing was completely legal and constitutional.  "Even so, do you not have any sympathy for this child?"  Do we not have the merest humanity to not celebrate this?  Some people were seen celebrating.  They were ecstatic.  They were celebrating the fact the people lost their homes and shops.  "Navika Kumar, Editor-in-Chief of Times Now Media House, tweeted,"  Followed by laughing emojis.  "Some people lost their homes, their shops,"  but it is a laughing matter for her.  Have some people become so bloodthirsty?  Kasab was a terrorist.   This here is an innocent child.  "Now friends, let's come to the actual facts."  "The thing is the justice meted out by the judiciary,"  if often time-consuming but just.  It is certain about its target. 

"On the other hand, revenge is taken instantly."  Haste makes waste.  "Being driven by emotions and anger,"  revenge keeps missing its target.  It ends up hurting the innocents.  "The authorities claim to have followed the due process while bulldozing,"  and that only illegal encroachments have been bulldozed.  "Aaj Tak's reported Anjana Om Kashyap,"  "repeated the claims by the authorities, to say,"  """Whether it is a mosque or a juice corner,"  "everything that's illegal will be demolished."""  "But should a journalist merely repeat what the authorities say,"  "or should they actually find out,"  whether the statements are true or not?  Did she try to find out  if the demolished juice stalls were truly illegal?  "When Lallantop's journalist Siddhant Mohan went to verify this claim,"  he talked to Ganesh Kumar Gupta.  An owner of a juice corner whose shop or stall was demolished. 

Ganesh showed him the allotment letter for his shop issued in 1978.  It was clearly written that he had bought the shop from the original owner.  "He even showed the letter from DDA,"  which contained details on shifting of property.  He showed him the rent slips and all relevant documents.  But to what end?  His shop had been bulldozed.  """I have all the receipts."  -All the receipts. -Are these the rent receipts?  "Yeah, receipts for all rent paid."  "And the money that was deposited into DDA's bank account, "  this is the receipt for that.  Then comes Raman Jha's story.  Owner of a Paan stall that was bulldozed.  He said that he was running the stall since 1985.  He even showed documents issued by the MCD.  "But when his stall was razed to the ground,"  he wasn't given any notice.  No prior information.  "On the morning of the incident, he asked the policemen thrice, "  if he should remove his stall from where it was parked.  The police told him that he needn't remove it.  And then came the bulldozer which razed it. 

The stall from where Raman earned his livelihood and ran his household.  Supreme Court had directed the residents of Jahangirpuri  to file an affidavit to the Supreme Court  saying that they weren't given any prior notice.  "And here, we shouldn't forget that"  Supreme Court had actually ordered this demolition to be stopped.  But the bulldozer kept at it for hours after the order.  What is this Bulldozer Revenge model that ran over justice?  Supreme Court's order was also violated.  "On social media and WhatsApp forwards, the narrative being set shows"  that only Muslims were targeted.  BJP MPs went around giving statements that  JCB stands for Jihad Control Board.  There's no doubt that they were trying to show that  only Muslims were being targeted in these bulldozer drives.  "But in the court,"  "government's lawyer, Tushar Mehta said that"  there was no communal take on the demolitions.  He told the court that  in the demolitions in Madhya Pradesh  88 houses belonged to Hindus  and 26 to Muslims.  "Whether Hindu or Muslim, one thing that I can say for sure"  that among the people who had to bear the brunt of the bulldozers  rich people account for 0% of them.  And the poor people account for 100% of them.  I talked about the same thing in the last  Blog on Bhagat Singh. 

When I talked about how Bhagat Singh talked about class consciousness.  "On these WhatsApp forwards and news channels, we get to hear"  """we the Hindus and them the Muslims"" or ""we the Muslims and them the Hindus"""  "but just think about it,"  "Hindu Gautam Adani, Hindu Mukesh Ambani,"  "Hindu Amit Shah and Hindu Akshay Kumar,"  "what do they have in common with Gautam Gupta and Raman Jha,"  the ill-fated owners of the demolished shops.  "For argument's sake, they too are Hindus,"  but do they eat the same kind of food?  Do they wear the same clothes?  Do they enjoy the same status in society?  Do they earn the same?  Do they live in the same houses?  "Or is their locality, their neighbourhood the same?"  Are their living conditions the same?  "The cleanliness around them, the purity of the water they drink,"  "the schools their children attend,"  There's nothing common in these Hindus.  "Hindu Ganesh Kumar Gupta and Hindu Raman Jha,"  have nothing in common  with these Hindu Amit Shah and Hindu Akshay Kumar.  They merely belong to the same religion.  "Similarly, Muslim Shah Rukh Khan, Muslim Salman Khurshid,"  "Muslim Rubika Liaquat,"  what do they have in common with the poor Muslims whose homes were demolished? 

"Their clothes, income, business, the neighbourhood around them,"  there's nothing in common.  Except for the one God they believe in.  "On the other hand, Hindu Akshay Kumar and Muslim Salman Khan have a lot in common."  But a poor Hindu and a poor Muslim living in Jahangirpuri  have a lot in common.  "Where the live, the clothes they wear,"  "their incomes, their businesses,"  "The development around them,"  and the attrocities they'd have to face.  "The bulldozers running over them, they'll have to get through everything together."  This is something that people need to realise.  "I talked about this in detail in the last  Blog on communal riots,"  you can go watch it. 

The question here is that  "now that you've understood the true intention behind the Bulldozer Politics,"  "the question is,"  why do some people support this form of politics?  There are three main reasons behind this.  First: communal hatred.  Some people hate people from other religions so much   that they forget humanity.  They start celebrating attrocities against others.  Especially when they think that only one community is being targeted by the attrocities.  These people are so brainwashed  "that they forget the conditions they're living in,"  "an average Hindu middle-class man and an average Muslim middle-class man,"  is suffering through the same situations.  "Inflation, rising prices of petrol and diesel, CNG, LPG,"  "rising prices of foodstuffs, falling FD rates and PF rates,"  "rising unemployment,"  "even so, they are so bloodthirsty that"  they get sadistic pleasure when they see others being tormented.  "But even so, I wouldn't call this the main reason."  The second reason is more pervalent.  Our slow judicial system.  Police and courts have often delayed justice.  "Nirbhaya's case that had moved the country,"  it had taken 7 years to get justice in that.  "Many people are so fed up with this justice system,"  "and look towards ""instant justice."""  "On top of it, they are also influenced by films where" 

promote vigilante behaviour.  The problem is that these people need to understand  "the instant justice that they hail,"  is actually revenge.  And there's a stark difference between revenge and justice.  True peace in society  can be ushered in through the judiciary system only.  "If we start idealising Bulldozer politics,"  "if we start running after revenge,"  "there will be an uprise of hatred, anger, and gangs in the country."  "The crime rate increases with this, rather than decreasing."  The third reason is  some people love the Strongmen Image.  People like politicians that seem strong.  These people often secretly admire dictators.  The image of the Bulldozer is an extension of the strongmen image.  So what's the solution?  The solution is to bring about improvements in our judicial system.  The number of policemen need to be increased.  The police should be given better training.  "A need for police reforms,"  and higher salaries to policemen.  Filing the vacancies of judges.  And increasing the number of judges and courts in the country.  "And always remember, looking for instant justice,"  can imprison the wrong people and hurt the innocent.  I hope you found the blog informative as always.  Thank you very much!


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